Capital One Cup Final raises the bar

2 March 2015

2015 Capital One Cup Final becomes most socially engaged League Cup showpiece in history.

Sunday’s Capital One Cup Final between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur not only came out top of the social media charts on what was a huge day of televised sporting occasions, but has been declared the most socially engaged League Cup Final ever.

Unprecedented levels of fan engagement in the build-up to the game, driven by The Football League’s innovative #OwnTheArch campaign, laid the platform for the Final to light up conversation on social media around the world, as demonstrated by a visual map of tweets during the game released by Twitter Data.

According to data provided by Kantar Media, the match was the most talked about sporting event on Twitter in the UK yesterday, attracting more than 8 times as many tweets as the Ireland v England Six Nations match.

Commenting on the success of the Capital One Cup Final, Drew Barrand, Marketing Director at The Football League said: “The engagement from supporters not just in the UK but around the world with the Final has been phenomenal, both in the build up to the game and on the day of the match itself.

“The Capital One Cup Final has raised the bar – the mass involvement from fans across multiple media platforms over the last week has made it the biggest domestic club game of the year."

The Football League delivered a range of activity in support of the Final across social media platforms, the highlight being the #OwnTheArch hashtag battle on Twitter that delivered unprecedented engagement for the competition with fans around the world.

In a unique first, the campaign offered fans the chance to decide the colour of the iconic Wembley Stadium arch by tweeting either #ChelseaAtWembley or #SpursAtWembley. Over half a million votes were cast in the build up to the Final, with Tottenham Hotspur narrowly winning with 51%, with the result of the vote announced live from Wembley on Sky Sports News. In addition to the two club hashtags, there were also 100,000 posts on Twitter using the #OwnTheArch campaign hashtag itself.

Other social media activity for the Final saw supporters submit motivational messages for the two teams via the Capital One Cup official Facebook page, with one message for each team selected to be displayed in the tunnel as the last thing the teams saw before they walked out at Wembley.

On match day supporters around the world not lucky enough to have a ticket for the match were given the chance to have their photo featured on the giant screens as Wembley by posting a #FinalSelfie on Instagram or Twitter, while fans also tweeted post-match interview questions that were put players.

For the match itself, The Football League covered the event across social media, delivering content on its official corporate and competition Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest accounts.

For the week of the Final, impressions on tweets delivered on the @CapitalOne_Cup account increased by 250%, while the number of retweets increased nearly five-fold and the number of replies from fans was multiplied by nearly 20 times. On Facebook, the official Capital One Cup page saw a five-fold increase in fan engagement over the week compared to 2014, and a 250% increase in post impressions.

Sunday’s Final saw Chelsea emerge as winners of the first major domestic silverware of the season in front the highest ever League Cup Final crowd at the new Wembley. In addition to exclusive live domestic coverage on Sky Sports, the match was also broadcast around the world. A record number of over 200 territories covered the game, meaning it was available to watch for over a billion people.

The conversation on Twitter peaked as the full time whistle blew to seal Chelsea a 2-0 victory. Other key talking points were around the goals and the trophy lift. John Terry was the most talked about individual during the game, followed by his manager Jose Mourinho. Harry Kane was the most talked about Tottenham Hotspur player at Wembley.